President Cyril Ramaphosa’s appointment of former Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel as the Minister in charge of the Department of Trade and Industry not only raises questions but also provides an opportunity to fix the International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa (Itac).

As for the questions, will the Economic Development Department (EDD), which was established nearly ten years ago and has been responsible for economic policy, economic planning and economic development, continue to exist? Or will it be returned to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), its spiritual home, or be amalgamated with it?

efore the EDD came into being, Itac reported solely to the Minister of Trade and Industry, but the reporting was subsequently split between the two Ministers. It is thus quite possible that Itac will again be reporting solely to the Minister of Trade and Industry.

If it is to report to the Minister of Trade and Industry only, the first order of business for the Minister should be to have a closer look at the Itac website (www.itac.org.za), which is in dire and urgent need of an update. Where to start? At the beginning – ‘About Itac’ – and the second header, ‘Executive & Senior Management’. This section lacks the photos of the chief commissioner, the deputy chief commissioner, the CFO and the senior manager: legal services. There are two vacancies, for the chief economist and the senior manager: technical advisory services. The Itac website states the deadline for the submission of applications for the chief economist position as February 2, 2018, and the person who would be appointed to that position would receive yearly remuneration of R1 196 516, while that of the chief commissioner would range from R1 299 501 to R1 463 892. There is no reference to the advertisement of the senior manager: technical advisory services vacancy. Interestingly, the Itac website states that “there are no vacancies available”.

As for ‘advertorials’, the last listed on the website, titled ‘Import tariffs setting for agricultural products’, appeared in The Star on May 23, 2013. The last of the media releases, titled ‘Reduction in the rate of customs duty on digital smart cards’, was published on June 30, 2017. The only section that seems to be up to date is the ‘News headlines’ section, which was updated as recently as April 8, 2019, with the addition of a story titled ‘SA poultry industry backs Namibia against dumping of chicken from Brazil’.

Less recent are the ‘Trade Indicators’, which was last updated in 2015, the ‘Annual Trade Report’ (2014), the ‘Quarterly Trade Report’ (2016), the ‘Occasional Papers’, with the latest uploaded in April 2017 – ‘Tariffs in South Africa’s Industrial Policy: The Role of Itac and ‘Impact Evaluation Reports’ (2017).

Oddly enough, the Itac website does not contain any information on current tariff investigations (increase of customs duty, reduction of customs duty, and rebate of the customs duty) and current trade remedies investigations (antidumping, countervailing – antisubsidy – and safeguards).

Under ‘Publications’, there is an interesting publication, Annual Performance Plan 2018/19, dated March 12, 2018. On page 7, there is a table of ‘Types of Measures’, with columns from 2012 to 2016, and two additional columns. The latter two are of interest, one for ‘Mid-Oct ’16 to mid-May ‘17’ (seven months)’, and ‘Mid-May ’17 to mid-Oct’ ‘17’ (five months)”. I am not certain why these are not published on a yearly basis. Could it be that the reason is to obscure the diminishing investigations?

If Itac is indeed initiating fewer trade remedy investigations and tariff investigations, should it not proactively pursue self-initiating investigations? Advertorials are another consideration.

As detailed in last week’s column, trade remedy investigations seem to be the domain of the ‘usual suspects’. The perpetual extension of trade remedy duties, through ‘sunset reviews’, also deserves closer investigation.

I wrote this column on the day that Itac turned 16 – on June 1. As an ageing organisation, it requires an urgent spring clean. If this is not going to come from within South Africa, then why not from the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu),

which has long desired to have a tariff board that will be an independent institution responsible for making recommendations to the Sacu Council on tariffs and trade remedies.